Dual Transitions from Authoritarian Rule

A valuable study of an important but quite neglected topic: the various political and economic dynamics of authoritarian regimes and their consequences for subsequent transition to democracy. It will interest students of these broader issues, not only of Chile and Mexico. -- Guillermo O'Donnell, University of Notre Dame This is a valuable addition to the comparative democratization literature. It makes important contributions in three areas: analytical, methodological, and empirical. The non-reductionist treatment of processes of 'dual transition' is a real improvement on earlier mechanistic ideas of 'sequencing.' The 'paired comparison' of Chile and Mexico shows how macro-historical work can be made more social scientific. And the case studies are important in their own right. -- Laurence Whitehead, Nuffield College, University of Oxford

This book will interest scholars of Latin American politics, democratization studies, market reform, and comparative politics and international relations.Latin America's region-wide 1982 economic collapse had a drastic effect on governments throughout Central and South America, leading many to the verge of failure and pushing several of the most stridently authoritarian-Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Uruguay-over the brink. Surprisingly though, Chile's repressive military dictatorship and Mexico's hegemonic civilian regime endured amid the economic chaos that rocked the region. Dual Transitions from Authoritarian Rule explains why the regimes in these two nations survived the financial upheaval of the early 1980s and how each progressed toward a more open, democratic, market-driven system in later years. Using an in-depth comparative analysis of Chile and Mexico, Francisco Gonzalez explains that the two governments-though quite different ideologically-possessed a common type of institutionalized authoritarian rule that not only served to maintain the political status quo but, paradoxically, also aided proponents of political and economic liberalization. Featuring a discussion of parallel phenomena in Brazil, Hungary, Taiwan, and South Korea, Dual Transitions from Authoritarian Rule presents a cogent challenge to the received wisdom that sociopolitical and economic change within authoritarian nations must be approached separately. This book will interest scholars of Latin American politics, democratization studies, market reform, and comparative politics and international relations.